Strawberry Ridge is a nice ride near St. Helens, right across the road from Goat Mountain. The Trans-Cascadia Enduro folks did a ton of trail work here summer of 2018. The trail is now in primo shape.
Strawberry Ridge is a nice ride near St. Helens, right across the road from Goat Mountain. The Trans-Cascadia Enduro folks did a ton of trail work here summer of 2018. The trail is now in primo shape.
It is a long North to South ridge trail that has a drop down trail in the middle of it.
Doing the correct route you can swim in 2 lakes. You will see stunning contrasting views of green mountain forest and blasted volcanic devastation, and ride through the differences yourself. I guess I'd have to admit its actually a pretty challenging, steep, loose, dusty, pumicey ride in many places.
How to Find It
The trail is easily accessed from Ryan Lake Campground.
Typical Conditions
Flowers peak towards the end of July.
Combine a day on Strawberry Ridge with a day on Goat Mtn for a fun weekend of hard back country riding.
Turn by Turn
Head up to windy ridge viewpoint - go to the Norway pass trailhead and head east. Swim in Deadman's lake.
You will be on boundary trail #1, take the left hand turn that heads up to Strawberry mt. You can also
Keep going on boundary trail #1, that is a good ride. You can also start at the north end and come south. The high point is
In the middle either way works. The climb from the north is very loose and dusty, a lot of hiking. The approach climb from the south (after you leave boundary #1) is very steep and challenging, lots of hiking. Also, if its a blowdown year it can be impassable so call the ranger station for conditions.
The trail down in the middle might require some route finding but if you keep heading down you will be okay, it pops out near the Ryan Lake camping area. There is a big plateau next to Ryan lake that is perfect for camping and lets you hit Goat Mt. and STrawberry ridge.
Note that if you start from the north, a nice way to go is to start at Ryan Lake, and ride down 26 which is mostly a coast. The year we did it there were lots of washouts, and road was half destroyed, so there were no cars and it was a fun coast (its not steep, just gentle). You ride up an old dirt road for a mile to catch the trail head.
If you are coming in from Norway pass and swim at Deadman's lake, after you make the arduous climb to the top of Strawberry ridge, you can see a lake down below which will seem like a very big loss of elevation. Howerver, if you continue on the normal route, it starts to descend a bit anyway.
It turns out that descending to this lake, and then coming back up on the old roads, you don't really end up climbing much more than taking the normal route. It sounds confusing but its actually pretty easy to see everything when you are up top - lots of volcanic devastation means no site blocking trees.
Just don't miss the down trail half way. I've never done the whole ridge in one sitting, that might be an interesting ride as well.
